Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 10.039 December 7, 2000 1) YIVO fellowships (Paul Glasser) 2) Introduction (Tom De Brabander) 3) yiddish-maybe down, but not out (Mirl Schonhaut Hirshan) 4) Yiddish dictionary (Fred Sherman) 5) Groyser yidisher verterbukh (Lucas Bruyn) 6) Walter Matthau research (Rob Edelman & Audrey Kupferberg) 7) Translation of "Di Moral" (Brian Shanblatt) 8) "di yunge gvardye" (Johnny Mangaard) 9) George W. Bush (Dovid Herskovic) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 14:36:36 -0500 (EST) From: Paul Glasser Subject: YIVO fellowships Owing to circumstances beyond our control, we are extending the deadline for all YIVO fellowships by a month, until December 31, 2000. All applications that are received by this deadline will receive full consideration. Thank you. Dr. Paul Glasser Chair, Fellowship Committee YIVO Institute for Jewish Research 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 2 Nov 2000 06:27:41 -0500 (EST) From: Tom Debrabander Subject: Introduction I am 34 years old and live in Antwerp, Belgium. My interest inYiddish dates from when I first read Philip Roth's "Portnoy's Complaint" at 17 and wanted to understand all the dirty bits. Only recently have I undertook to learn to read and understand Yiddish with the amount of seriousness needed to make the effort pay off. Thankfully there are a lot of Yiddish texts to be found on the internet, because the Yidish books I find in a local Jewish bookstore are a bit heavy for my size -even the lighter stuff like "Kedoshe in der Yidishe familie-lebn". That's why, useful or not, I would very much like to subscribe to a Yidish periodical in the Netherlands. Could Lucas Bruyn please tell how I can contact the publishers of Grine Medine (vol.10.036), I haven't succeeded in tracing them myself? Respectfully, Tom De Brabander 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2000 15:31:19 -0500 (EST) From: Marjorie Hirshan Subject: yiddish-maybe down, but not out Oyfn Shvel(#319-July-September 2000) is proof positive that yiddish may be down, but not out! It is alive and well, and page 5 fulfills a dream I used to have that a poem would call forth deep desires to learn Yiddish and make it live on. Leye Shlosman speaks eloquently and funem hartsn for all zeyde-bobes in 2000. At least in my Vinkl here in Florida, the group wished to learn all, all the new Yiddish words to identify more deeply with her and this emotion which all had experienced. I present the poem to speak for itself. azoy gikh, azoy gikh -leye shlosman a shtilkeyt filt on yedn tsimer, vart oyf mir bay yeder tir. di kinder tsitern shoyn vider toyznt mayl tsofn vu shneyen blishtshen. a kurtze vokh zikh ongevaremt tsuzamen, zey fun der florider zun, un ikh fun zeyer shtralndike penimer. ikh her vi eltern baklogn zikh, ziftsn: oy, amolike yorn, kinder lebn tate-mame geblibn, yedn shabos tsu gast gekumen. hayntike teg -- tsezeyt un tseshpreyt. un s'volt zikh mir muser zogn: ketsisher moyekh! shoyn fargesn "a brivele der mamen"? meshpokhes opgezundert durkh yamen, oyf der shif getreyslt fintstere vokhn, zikh nisht gezen lange yorn. haynt, mitn kishef fun an eroplan, bald, bald vel ikh tulyen a vareme hant. a shtilkeyt filt on yedn tsimer, umet lokert oyf mir. nor er ken zikh nisht araynraysn in mayn festung zise zekhroynes. kh'hob di kinder gezen, gekusht, geglet, mir hobn shpatsirt in eynem, gelakht... oyf yeder tsesheydung in eroport farvandlen zikh ale mayne gedanken in eyn laydenshaftlekhn bager: flit, tayere, oyf zilberne fligl besholem aheym tsu zikh, flit, tayere, oyf goldene fligl in gikhn tsurik tsu mir. Mirl Schonhaut Hirshan Boynton Beach, Florida 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2000 05:29:11 -0500 (EST) From: Fred Sherman Subject: Yiddish dictionary So we can't have a new Yiddish dictionary (10.038) because of professional animosities? How painfully Jewish. Tell us. Are the parties en cas or broyges? And how do you spell it? Why doesn't YIVO and one other faction each publish its own edition? Then we would have, besides to a shul we don't go to, a dictionary we don't read. Fred Sherman Monmouth, OR 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 08:41:30 -0500 (EST) From: "Marion Troia." Subject: Groyser yidisher verterbukh In the latest issues of the Mendele list a discussion is developing on the Groyser yidisher verterbukh and Yiddish orthography. It seems that none of the participants has read the recently announced work by Mordkhe Shaekhter: The Standardized Yiddish Orthography with the History of the Standardized Yiddish Spelling - Der eynhaytlekher yidisher oysleyg, fun folkshprakh tsu kulturshprakh, an iberblik iber der historye funem eynhaytlekhe yidishn oysleyg. [see Mendele vol 10.003]. I would strongly recommend this fascinating and well written work. It not only sheds light on the fate of the Groyser yidisher verterbukh, it also shows that the battle for a standardized Yiddish orthography is over - there is nothing left but following YIVO's 'takones'. SYO is here to stay, and so is SYR. What is so great about a Great Yiddish dictionary. Who wants it? Who needs it? Once it is there, either in published form or just as a card system, very few people will have use for it. What is important is the eventual offspring of such a dictionary: handy, one-volume dictionaries for the use of students of Yiddish, readers of Yiddish literature - explaining the meaning of words, giving examples from literature. Who needs, say, the complete Oxford Dictionary of the English language? A few scholars. Not the average reader of English literature; even translators make do with the Concise Oxford. If the material brought together for the Great Yiddish Dictionary is complete and accessible, let's forget about printing it and proceed to the next stage. To hear that beginning students of Yiddish can hardly live without the Great Yiddish Dictionary sounds like an exaggeration. In Mordkhe Shaechter's "The History of the Standardized Yiddish Spelling", recently published as part of the work "The standardized Yiddish Orthography," we find three facsimiles of handwritten text. 1. First page of the minutes of the Yiddish Spelling Committee, New York City, April 1921. (p. 38), 2. Letter from the Yiddish poet Rukl Fishman, dated February, 1967, asking for orthographic guidance (p. 75), 3. Fragment of a letter from Max Weinreich concerning the "Guide to the Standardized Yiddish Orthography", New York, 1961 (p. 83) The first item is written in a very clear hand and easy to read; the second is written in a more personal hand that the reader has to get used to, but readable; the third is rather hard to read. I give here a transcription of what I made of it. Corrections would be appreciated. 61/V/15 tayerer her shekhter, s'volt efsher geven a plan funandertsushikn a tsikular arayn tsu ale mitglider fun der komisye durkhtsu- firn ... un zey dertseyln: 1) di oyflage fun 2000 iz kimat oysfarkoyft - mit a por gute verter vegn der virkung. 2) mir trakhtn vegn a nayer oyflage. 3) vosere forshlagn ken men gebn vegn oysfir, oysbese- rungen ... u"v. efsher vet dos take brengen a por gute aynfaln oykh, Lucas Bruyn. 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 18:30:26 -0500 (EST) From: Rob & Audrey Subject: Walter Matthau research We are researching a biography of the actor Walter Matthau, to be published by Taylor Publishing. We know that Matthau (whose original surname was Matthow) grew up on the Lower East Side, where he was born on October 1, 1920. When he was eleven, he began to work as a concessionaire selling ice cream and soft drinks at the Second Avenue Yiddish theaters. He also began to play bit parts, and appeared in the Yiddish musicals THE DISHWASHER (with Herman Yablokoff) and SERGEANT NAFTULA (with Leo Fuchs). We are looking for additional information on Matthau and the Yiddish theater -- and perhaps even individuals to interview who worked with him or remember seeing him on stage, or who might recall him from the neighborhood. Can anyone help us in any way? Please feel free to contact us off-list. Rob Edelman & Audrey Kupferberg Amsterdam, NY 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 14:20:26 -0500 (EST) From: "Brian Shanblatt" Subject: Translation of "Di Moral" Hello! I am looking for help in translating some of the verses from the song "Di Moral" ( the Moral) from the Abraham Goldfaden play Meylitz Yosher ("Righteous Advocate"). My Yiddish is quite weak! I only have the verses in YIVO transliteration. The verses that are giving me difficulty are below. I have also indicated below them my rough translations. If any one could respond with a translation, or at least direct me to a resource, live or on-line, I would be very grateful! Thank you! The verses: A yunger man geyt shpeyt bay nakht, vayl fun shokhins vaybel halt er, Arayn in shtub, vayl er trakht, "In der heym iz nishtu ihr alter". Der alter hot zikh oyfgekhapt, Un nehmt zayn shtok aroys, Un knakt ihm nor vu er dertapt aleh beyneh oys. Un ven der yunger man vet kreynken, Un zikh a tap tohn iberal, Oy vet er gedenken di veynerneh moral... A dameleh frizirt nit shlekht, Nor vil zikh gornit shemen; Zi loyft arum di gantse nakht, Der riakh veyst zi mit vemen. Ihr man fun kas iz shoyn zat, Er khapt zi ohn baym tsop. Un rayst ihr aleh hor kh'mat moralish oys fun kop. Un az dos dameleh vet zikh friziren, Un doh vet zayn glat iberal, Oy vet zi damols shpiren di oysgetsupteh moral... Rough translations: A young man goes around late at night, while he takes a fancy to his neighbor's wife. In his room, he thinks: "Her husband is not at home!" The husband is suddenly awakened (?) and he takes a stone(?), floor(?) outside. (Aroys=expell)?? He cracks him where ever unexpectedly, all of his bones out (??????) And when the young man is feeling ill, And when he gets his feeling back (?) afterall, Oh, then he will consider the venerable moral of life. A wife (hairdo?) is not bad. ?????? It blows around the whole night The wind is .....?????? Her husband is full of anger He grabs her by the braid. He pulls out most of her hair???? The morals out of her head??? And then the wife has her (hairdo?) And now it is smooth(?) And then she comprehends the ??? moral. Brian Shanblatt 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 05:45:02 -0500 (EST) From: Johan George Mangard Subject: "di yunge gvardye" Sholem aleykhem! Tsi emetser ken mir zogen, ver iz der vos hot geshribn dos lid "di yunge gvardye"? un ver iz der kompositer fun di melodi? Does anyone know who's written the song "di yunge gvardye", and what's the origin of the melody? Johnny Mangaard 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2000 06:37:36 -0500 (EST) From: "David Herskovic" Subject: George W. Bush Without of course wishing to be seen endorsing any of the candidates Chave Respitz's note (10.038) set me thinking. For a start there is a yiddish saying for those cognately challenged: az got vil shtrofn a min ho'orets leygt er im arayn an orn koydesh vort in moyl. But just imagine Bush speaking yiddish. di velt darf mikh hobn vi a lokh in top Florida far Gore? a make un a poyker On his drink driving aveyre: s'iz geven yom kipurim. blabt gezint, Dovid Herskovic ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 10.039 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://mendele.commons.yale.edu http://ibiblio.org/yiddish/mendele.html